In 1985 biochemist David Dolphin proposed that the vampires of folklore may actually have been people suffering from porphyria, a group of rare, largely hereditary blood diseases.
Porphyria is an hereditary disease caused by an anomaly of the metabolism [overproduction and accumulation of the porphyrins or the “purple pigment”].
It is practically a form of septicemia – the toxins build up in the blood and they gradually poison the muscles. As the illness progresses the color of the urine will change, taking shades of red, purple or even brown.
It will pass down from one generation to another in some cases remaining latent. The disease can this way skip a generation or two and resurface in unexpected branches of the genealogical tree.
Presently the illness is completely treatable and the number of cases seems to be dropping, but in the Middle Ages things weren`t as simple!

In those days a porphiric could be easily mistaken for a vampire because of the sensitivity to sunlight. Even mild exposure can cause severe disfigurement. Facial skin may scar, the nose and fingers may fall off, and the lips and gums may become so taut that the teeth project like fangs. It`s only natural that in the terminal stages the ill would leave their houses only at night – just like vampires.
We even find references of blood rituals.
One might argue that, since it is a blood disorder one might need to take the blood of another to replace his own ill blood. I cannot speak for what was believed back then although I do think it is possible that people were convinced that the “vampires” drank blood to sustain their live form.
Porphyria victims don’t crave blood. Drinking blood will not alleviate their symptoms, nor has there ever been a general belief that it would. The blood chemicals porphyria victims need do not survive digestion.
We even have ties between this disease and garlic.
Most of the ill are allergic cu garlic therefore cannot stand it. If you remember my ~Superstitions~ article, I mentioned the fact that priests would distribute garlic during mass to test for living vampires!
Modern medicine explains that the substances that normally make garlic such a great remedy for a healthy organic system, when combined with that of a porphiric can have poisoning effects. Ingestion of garlic first affects the stomach and they often cough it up.

Another interesting fact is that, since porphyria is hereditary, it falls into the idea that vampires returned to feed on their family.
And here I feed the need to add a couple of observations: modern ~Literature~ and ~Movies~ show that the transformation is almost instantaneous [like in “Interview with the vampire”] or that it might take up to a night [like in “True Blood” or “Vampire Diaries”], but the old legends state that sometimes the transformation can take longer. Even years!
So there was enough time for a child to grow and his porphiric gene be activated, or for another child – with an already active gene to be born.
You can therefore imagine the psychological effect a single case of porphyria could have had on a rural community in a village in the Middle Ages. Especially considering that in such a community everybody is related to… everybody.
To that, add the tension created by priests that castes fear into the peasants.

So lets recap:
– paleness
– sensitivity to sunlight
– [sometimes] allergic reactions to garlic
– skin burns if exposed to the sun
– speculations that blood drinking is required to recuperate a healthy state
– [hereditary disease] chain periodic deaths within a family

This chain of events seams to be a motif for certain regions in Europe. It dates back to the 15th century and has inspired both literature and movies in the last decades.
It is linked to the belief that the vampires are infected by a disease that is spread from one undead to the others in his vicinity. Lore has it that after the burial the vampire will spend the days chewing away at its own shroud and then pass to the dead close to it thus infecting them and enabling them to turn into vampires as well.
At night, the vampire would leave his shroud near his grave and would put it back on when returning to the resting place. Without it he or she wouldn`t be able to return to its grave.
The common legend about this specific type of vampire is that it was always found and slain because of this piece of cloth.
Mainly… when the villages would confront themselves with such issues they would set up watch in the tower of the church [keep in mind that we are talking about the Middle Ages so the cemetery was near the church]. The grave of the vampire would be found because it would be the marked by a shroud.
The villagers would either deal with the vampire during the day or the watchman would steal the shroud during the night and then dispose of the vampire upon its return.
In either case the nearby graves would be inspected also.

A similar story is captured by Goethe in his ~Dance of Death~. His ballad is about a watchman who looks down on the churchyard at midnight from the top of the church tower. He sees how the dead are leaving their tombs and take off their shrouds joining in a “Dance of the Dead”.
The watchman sneaks down, steals one of the shrouds and climbs back up.
After the dance, all the dead put on their shrouds and go back to their graves except for the one whose shroud has been stolen.
When he is confronted by the watchman the vampire starts climbing the tower wall. When he has almost reached the top, the tower clock strikes one so since the witching hour is over and the dead man falls down.

An episode that matches this one may be found in “Carmilla” by Sheridan La Fenu and in the screen adaptation “The vampire lovers” [1970].
In the opening scene of the movie we are presented with a specter leaving the grave and going hunting into the nearby tavern. When it returns it is provoked by a nobleman that stole its shroud and it makes its way to the church.
It is revealed that the vampire is an extremely attractive woman and the man is almost seduced by her. When she is about to feed on him she burns herself on the silver crucifix hanging by his neck and when the spell is broken he manages to fight her off and decapitate her.

Croatia is a country that believes in legends to this day, so it is not difficult to believe that the elders of some communities still hold much sway on the way certain issues are dealt with.

The story is said to have happened in 1936 in the region of Varazdin – specifically in the village of Kneginec. It is recounted in “Le Vampirisme – de la légende au réel” [vampirism – from legend to reality] by Robert Ambelain.
Suspicious things would happen in the area from time to time, with rather big intervals of time in between – therefore the legends and ways of cleansing the purge were passed on from father to son.
That is why, despite both the authorities and the clerics being against vampire superstitions, grave inspections were still practiced by the elders.
A number of young men and women had become the victims of a mysterious disease. Several died within a few weeks, others within two or three months at most. All of the victims had on their throats one or two bluish marks. Some of the victims would wake up during the night after suffering from horrible nightmares but this happened during the first couple of nights.
After that they would just slowly fade away, supposedly because of a corpse that had been buried in the Castle of Herdody in Varazdin!

In “Les Vampires” by Jean-Paul Bourre we are given a theory about the vampire that might have been responsible. Le points to the identity of the supposed vampire as Barbara of Cillei. The ritual for getting rid of the presence took place in the ruins of Varazdin, performed by an orthodox priest of the Oriental Church [Croatia is of orthodox religion, not catholic]. It is said that the haunting stopped after that.

NOTE: In a footnote, Ambelain adds: “This legend has perhaps inspired Sheridan LeFanu for his episode about the hidden tomb of Mircalla von Karnstein.”

In Vaguilesti [again in Mehedinti, modern day Romania] there was a peasant named Dimitriu Vaideanu, of Transylvanian origin, who had married and settled there.
His children died one after the other; seven died within a few months of birth, and some of the older children died as well.
People began to wonder what the cause of all this could be so they convened a council and decided to take a white horse to the cemetery one night, and see if it would pass over all the graves.
Upon doing so they noticed that the horse jumped over all the graves, until it came to the grave of the mother-in-law, Ioana Marta, who had been a witch, renowned far and wide.
Then the horse stood still, beating the earth with its feet, neighing, and snorting, unable to step over the grave as if there was something unholy there.
At night, Dimitriu and his son took candles and went to dig up the grave. They supposedly found the woman sitting like a Turk, with long hair falling over her face, with all her skin red, and with finger nails frightfully long.
They got together brushwood, shavings, and bits of old crosses, they poured wine on her, they put in straw, and set fire to the whole.
Then they shoveled the earth back and went home.

It is not recorded if the deaths stopped after these measures were taken but we sure have a lot of interesting things in this case!
First of all we don`t have any symptoms of the mysterious disease that took all the young ones to the grave. Also we have the gathering of the council and the decision to literally scout the cemetery using one of the superstitions specific to the region – the white horse as a detector!
§ Signs to recognize vampires
Last but not least we have a rather unusual way of dispatching the vampire since there is no piercing/removing of the heart and the two simply torch the corpse… no mention of them taking ashes to mix with [holy] water.

You will find this case mentioned in books such as Montague Summers`s “The Vampire in Europe” and Adrien Cremene`s “Mythology of the vampire in Romania”. If was originally presented by Tudor Pamfile.

The story was originally published in N.I. Dumitrascu‘s “Strigoi – din credintele, datinile si povestirile poporului roman, cap. XXXVIII” [The undead – from the beliefs, customs and tales of the Romanian people, chapter 38], published in Bucharest in 1927.

We aren`t given an exact date so the only thing we can be sure of is the fact that it happened before 1927 and based on the events I can guarantee that we are not talking about the ~cripple of Cujmir~ – in fact there is nothing that links the two stories, other than the fact that both happened in Cujmir [in the modern day region of Mehedinti, Romania].

In Cujmir, another family began to show very frequent deaths, and suspicion fell on a certain old man, dead long ago.
When they dug him up, they found him sitting up like a Turk, and as red as red, just like fire; for had he eaten up nearly the whole of a family of strong, young men.
When they tried to get him out he resisted, unclean and horrible.
They gave him some blows with an axe, they got him out, but they could not cut him with a knife. They took a scythe and an axe, cut out his heart and liver, burnt them, and gave them to the sick folk to drink.
They drank, and regained their health.
The old man was reburied, and the deaths ceased.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this case is the fact that the vampire isn`t immobile during the vanquishing ritual. Rather than that he seams to be putting up quite a fight since the villagers need to bring in axes and even a scythe to open him up.
Also, the state that he is in [“red as red, just like fire”] is different than the usual found with no signs of decay.

You will find this case mentioned in books such as Montague Summers`s “The Vampire in Europe” and Adrien Cremene`s “Mythology of the vampire in Romania”